More former members of New Life Christian Church and World Outreach have come forward alleging a pattern of abuse and cover-up at the nondenominational Indiana church.

Its pastor, John B. Lowe II, resigned Monday after a woman said he groomed her and sexually abused her starting when she was 16. John Lowe and his wife, Debbie, their son Bryan Lowe, and their daughter Brightie Lowe were on staff at the church in Warsaw, Indiana before the revelations.

Jessi Kline told The Roys Report earlier this week that she was 13 when she told John and Debbie Lowe that the couple’s relative had molested her years earlier. Now, another woman, Laura Bohnke, has accused the same relative of grooming and molesting her for about a year when she was 11.

A third woman, Aliyah Howard, says the church tried unsuccessfully to keep her from pursuing criminal charges against another man in the church. The man was convicted in 2018 of sexual misconduct with a minor and remains incarcerated.

And Abraham Hall, another former congregant, alleges the church twisted the doctrine of tithing to coerce his family into giving the church part of an insurance payout. The payout was for a collision that left his father bedridden, he told TRR.

TRR called and emailed New Life Christian Church and World Outreach for comment on these allegations, but has not heard back.

‘I was failed as a child’

Laura Bohnke wrote in a public Facebook post that she and her alleged abuser were both part of the church. She gave TRR permission to quote her post.

Bohnke and her alleged abuser, who was over 17 at the time, were also students at the church’s Christian school, she wrote. It was around the year 2000, she told TRR, and she was just 11.

“During this year there was rarely an interaction with him that didn’t involve abuse,” Bohnke wrote. She accused the Lowes’ relative of molesting her at the school, the church, and at his home, sometimes while her family was present.

The abusing relative also told Bohnke “that God told him we were meant for each other,” she wrote. “. . . What most people don’t understand is people rarely felt safe to tell this family no.”

“His family knew he had a problem controlling himself sexually and did nothing about it, allowing children to be abused perpetually,” Bohnke also wrote.

Bohnke wrote that she disclosed the abuse to her parents when she was 16 and the family went to police.

“I told them I was sharing so that other children could be protected from this monster . . . and that I wanted to take it as far as I could,” she wrote. The relative was working in children’s ministry at the church, she noted.

But she “was met with resistance and manipulation,” Bohnke continued.

“I was failed as a child by leadership in my church. Then, I was failed by my local law enforcement who aided and abetted my abuser and his father.”

Church accused of siding with child molester in court

Former member Aliyah Howard wrote in another public post on Facebook that her abuser, Dylan Houser, molested and raped her for about a year, starting when she was 14. TRR tried to reach Howard for comment for this story, but did not hear back.

Houser led New Life’s security team and was “very trusted with the youth,” Howard wrote. He was also married to her sister, and Howard indicated she saw them three or four times a week.

“The abuse occurred every time I was around him,” she wrote. “My parents trusted him, and my sister, and I didn’t know how to stop it. . . . He instilled so much fear to keep the secret. . . .”

When her parents found out, the family immediately got law enforcement involved. Then the church “told us they couldn’t help us anymore because we went to the police,” Howard wrote.

The church called Houser’s conduct an affair and encouraged his wife not to leave him, according to Howard.

Court records show Houser was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct with a minor in fall 2017.

Numerous families from the church wrote to the judge in his case, Howard indicated. She wrote that church members told the judge they blamed Howard, and believed Houser had had an affair, but was a good person.

Howard added that “rows of congregants” from New Life Christian Church and World Outreach sat behind her abuser in court. “I didn’t have a single person on my side except for my family and my lawyer,” she wrote.

Houser was convicted in two differentcounties of sexual misconduct with a minor. Under Indiana code, that is a felony charge, covering any sexual conduct between an adult and someone 14-15 years old.

Houser is currently incarcerated in New Castle Correctional Facility and is expected to be released in April 2024, Indiana Department of Correction records show.

‘Other issues that run just as deep’

Abraham Hall said his family attended New Life for about a decade, and John Lowe baptized him. Hall’s family left after learning about Jessi Kline’s alleged molestation, Hall said.

“I was fortunate enough to not be a victim of sexual abuse,” Hall told TRR via a messaging app, “but people need to realize New Life is suffering from other issues that run just as deep.”

Hall said the church emphasized tithing in its preaching. Then when a head-on collision in 2000 left Hall’s father bedridden for close to a year, the church urged Hall’s family to donate 10% of the insurance payout for the collision.

Yet, Hall’s parents cleaned the church since about 1994 without being compensated, Hall said. They continued to do so for two to three hours a week until they left the church in 2007, he told TRR.

He and Jessi Kline’s mother, Kris Kline, recall church members giving John Lowe a Mustang one summer for his 50^th birthday.

Hall said the Mustang was worth tens of thousands of dollars at the time.

Sarah Einselen is an award-winning writer and editor based in Texas.